Tuesday, September 23, 2008

flames v. panthers postgame: w.t.F ????

kent wrote some nice, accurate notes in his liveblog over at fiveholefanatics which i would suggest reading to get a more complete overview of tonight's tilt.

but i'll just jump in with some of the more obvious (to me) notes.

jamie lundmark. um.... WTF ?!?! obviously, at some point this summer, lundmark decided that he doesn't want to play in the AHL, russia, or any other league not called the NHL. i was absolutely STUNNED by his play tonight. he had a huge amount of hustle, made a few hits, and put a few pucks on net. most significantly, however, was that he called attention to himself for doing GOOD things, not HORRIBLE things. tonight's game, coupled with what i saw at camp on sunday, makes me almost willing to concede that lundmark has picked up his game...

dustin boyd made a huge statement tonight, as well. ending as the night's first star was well deserved. he played most of the night (if not all night) with moss and lundmark ----a line that got decent minutes and looked strong at both ends.

anders eriksson. this has got to stop. please. somebody. it's painful to everyone, including some guy who sat behind me tonight and knew pretty much nothing about hockey (but was decidedly vocal about how bad eriksson is). i UNDERSTAND that he's under contract and thus deserves a chance, but he has NOT improved and will, once again, be the direct cause of losses this season if he's given a spot. pardy, who has never played an NHL game, was FAR stronger tonight. pardy, infact, was stronger than sarich.....

cory sarich scares me. my concern last year (that sarich would have been the goat, had eriksson and warrener not been so terrible) has returned. not a strong outing for #6 tonight. he's somehow able to make regehr look bad.

nystrom - primeau - prust were average at best. i'm tired and feeling lazy tonight so i'm not going to check TOI, but i believe prust had far less shifts than the other two, who (i believe) spent some time skating with glenX. all three of them could be traded/demoted/sent to siberia and i wouldn't even blink...

david moss works hard. reeeaally hard.

curtis mcelhinney had a decent game. he was sharp when he needed to be, mostly, but definitely got bailed out by his D-men on a bad rebound or two... and should CLEARLY have been hugging the post on the gamewinner.... mark my words: matt keetley will get a good look in the backup role. the fanattic should hold off printing #1 jerseys if the flaming letter on the front is a C.

bertuzzi - backlund - iginla. i'm not sure who came out more nervous: backs or bootz. they both looked pretty bad in the first minutes, but settled in okay... backlund will not get a roster spot based on tonight's game, but he was as solid as any 19 year old in his first NHL game on the top line could expect to be. the kid's got a future. but i'm not convinced the immediate one will be anywhere outside of sweden.... my eyes told me that he was about 50% in faceoffs, had a few shots on (or near !) goal and fed a couple of sugary passes to his linemates. nothing spectacular, nothing awful.

lombo - bourque. it was so nice to see lombo break out and have someone streaking up the wing with him, leading to a 2-on-1 and a very serious scoring opportunity (that looked like a terrible lombo finish live, but the highlight shows there was a gaping fivehole, but anderson got the paddle down). i feel some nice potential and good chemistry. yep.

glenX was not given much of an opportunity.

negrin is like backlund: helluva future, but back to juniors this year. the difference between the two 19 year olds is that backlund got to play with one of the league's best forwards, and negrin got saddled with eriksson...

other notables:

- the pocketdawg was hugely disappointing. PLEASE NOTE the new pocketdawg crew MUST be supervised when pumping your condiments. i definitely had dry bun after the first two bites... it sucked. that stuff is supposed to pool in the bottom... ;)

- anyone who loves the calgary stampede midway also loves those little donuts. well, welcome to the 'dome, my little deepfried sugary friends. even though you tasted kinda doughy and gross and i felt a little sick after, it was still nice to smell you all game... :P

this means that three of warrener, eriksson, vandermeer, phaneuf, lombardi, bourque, glenX, roy & conroy can (presumeably) not be demoted. *sigh...****EDIT: i now understand the one-way contract, which makes this bit here kindof moot. :D

Actually BEING under contract doesn't make Eriksson deserving of anything. It just obligates the Flames to pay him, under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

Not that I watched the game, being in Toronto and all, but I wouldn't be so worried about Sarich looking bad in the first pre-season game. Just like I wouldn't be so excited about Lundmark looking GOOD in the first pre-season game . ..

Please tell me they haven't gotten rid of the 12 year olds at pocket dawg and gone and hired people who are legally allowed to work.

this comment makes me effin' HOWL (mostly cause i thought the same thing as the 65-year-old cottonhead took my order). the newbies are definitely older, and significantly slower... plus they REALLY want you to get a drink. :P

As for Calgary, everyone has a one-way contract besides Dustin Boyd

this i totally did not know. infact, this is a frightening predicament. all the talk of warrener/eriksson getting demoted is impossible, then ??!?!??! if this is the case, then i really do not understand sutter NOT buying out AT LEAST eriksson.... *shakes head

Not that I watched the game, being in Toronto and all

duncan, you and i both know you can listen to a live feed of the fan 960 on either thefan960.com, or nhl.com... you were just too busy...;)

I hate to say it but I am fixated on the Ander Eriksson crisis. Yes, it is a crisis more threatening than the US economic collapse. I accept he's on contract and contract must be honored but how can anyone in the Flames organization sleep at night knowing that chump might lace up his skates and step on the ice? He's proven to be useless and terrible. Pay him to make pocketdawgs or something other than playing hockey.

all the talk of warrener/eriksson getting demoted is impossible, then ??!?!?

Not at all. One-way simply means they get paid the same amount where ever they land in the organization - be it on the big club or the farm. Paying Anders 1.5M to screw-up in the QC may be less painful than paying him 1.5M to screw up in Calgary (or sit in the press-box).

my misunderstanding of that situation was really disconcerting for an hour or so there... ;)

it is impossible for me to think that real long-term hockey guys like keenan & staff or sutter & staff can turn a blind eye to the FACT that any of pelech/pardy/negrin would be preferrable to eriksson.

warrener has had a good camp thusfar and i will reserve judgement until i see a larger sample.

Go to know. I think part of the reason I did the liveblog was because I was stuck sitting at the computer listening to the game, which was rather dull. Figured I might as well type up notes while I was sat there.